Liberia and Senegal Close Land Borders with Guinea-a New Issue in the West African Society

Liberia a neighbouring country of Guinea has closed its land borders with Guinea stating the Ebola outbreak. This has raised serious concern and opposition from the Health Minister of Guinea Dr Remy Lamah. He raised his concerns in the six-day assembly of ECOWAS Health Ministers (AHM), which is taking place in Liberia.

AHM has been hosted by Liberia and started on April 11th and held the in the Golden Gate Hotel, Monrovia. The West African Sub-region Health Ministers assemble to discuss the health issues of the West African countries in this meeting. Reports say that the theme of this meeting is “Universal Health Coverage: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities”.

Discussing the issue, Mr Lamah is said to have stated that closing borders is the least of options or the last option any country should have taken. He further added that closing borders usually create more issues because there are possibilities of unofficial point entry or illegal entries into the country since those places would not be monitored.

After the outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Senegal, a neighbouring country also closed land borders. In fact, a Senegalese music superstar YoussouNdour, who was supposed to perform in concert in Conakry, cancelled stating that the disease could rapidly spread in large crowds.

In the meeting, Mr Lamah is said to have quoted ‘you know your best friends in a time of trouble’. Further the health minister of few other countries like Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Cape Verde have also supported Mr Lamah’s concern in the meeting. However, the health Minister of Senegal was on the defensive stating that it was done for the country’s benefits. He also further added that the government takes decisions and it does not show any disrespect to neighbouring countries or international health rules and regulations.